Conservapedia:JessicaT
JessicaT (aka, KotomiT, Kotomi Tanaka, ことみ 田中), is the newest addition to Conservapedia's Goon Squad. Despite her claims to the contrary, her surname, Tanaka in our alphabet, is a Samurai name. It is in fact rather glamorous and historical. Two former Japanese Prime Ministers was called Tanaka, Kakuei Tanaka and Giichi Tanaka. There was even a lady foreign minister, Makiko Tanaka. They're still elitist in Japan. Descendants of Samurai have no special legal privileges in modern Japan but all too often they end up in influential positions. The Tanakas aren't necessarily related to her or to each other. In Japanese traditionally the family name comes before the given name. [1]
She first discovered Conservapedia while she was in South Africa, where it seems her immediate family have lived for a number of years - her father's transfer abroad may be another indication of her family's status being higher than she lets on. This probably accounts to some extent for her decent command of written English.
However, she appears to be the polar opposite of any of the other Conservapedia sysops and far from being yet another member of Andy's echo-chamber, she seems unaware of, or probably rather studiously ignores, the usual ideological minefields. Instead, she simply concentrates on writing articles - 90% of which deal with Japanese language, culture and history; she does pitch in and revert vandalism when she comes across it.
She's the fifth non-U.S. citizen to be given block rights (after Phil Rayment, Joaquin, BrianCo and Bugler) and is a teacher (albeit at what appears to be a private Christian academy [1]), which - given Andy's loathing of the formal school system - makes her promotion unusual.
Whether or not the new powers she has been granted will bring about a change in behaviour, remains to be seen, although she does seem to be getting used to swinging teh banhammer. And 3 of her first 4 blocks were to different sockies of the same RationalWikian.
Editing history
JessicaT signed up on 2 May 2008[2] and received sysop 'lite' powers on 2 December 2008[3], possibly as a reward for long service.
She rarely engages with other users (most often with Ed Poor, Joaquin and DinsdaleP, whom she calls a friend) on the site, and is always polite and respectful when she does - and these sentiments are generally returned in kind. This, combined with her chosen subject matter, might account for her empty block log[4] - surely some kind of record amongst ordinary CP editors.
The only times she has really spoken out was on pro-Japanese matters - objecting to DeanS linking the Akihabara knife attack to gun control, tackling RJJensen on his use of Hirohito, where she insisted he should be referred to as Showa, but later backed down[5] (all her articles do refer to him as Showa, however) and taking on Karajou in this debate. She does seem to have a quick temper, losing it with a "HOW DARE YOU!" when insulted during the "fake Jinx" incident. (It appears as if she's another Conservapede who reads WIGO and TWIGO [6]).
She also seems to be having fun over there, often signing the edit summary of copyedits to her articles with a "baka!" (idiot!) and even engaging (probably due to the lack of blocking powers) in a humourous revert war with several wandals during "Conservapedia Day".
She appears to be a genuinely nice (and cute, if you see her userpage), but misguided person, which makes her presence (and status) there all the more unusual. The Japanese tradition is to follow leaders without question. It is taking longer than it usually would for someone of her intelligence to start questioning Aschlafly's leadership. In time we hope she will come to see that this is the truth.